A Good Night’s Rest & The Craftsmen Behind It

A few months back I got an email from the fine folks over at Hearst Magazine (that’s who publishes Elle Decor, Veranda and House Beautiful). They asked me if I would be interested in helping to make my very own luxury mattress by Stearns and Foster^® (an iconic brand that’s been around since 1846).  I would not only get to keep the mattress afterwards, but I’d even get to sign it, like a work of art — I learned that Stearns and Foster craftsmen sign the mattresses that they make. This sounded like a no-brainer to me. I love seeing the process of how things are made and I had been sleeping on a not-so-luxurious mattress for years, so…yeah.

While touring the facility, I got to meet a bunch of the Stearns and Foster craftsmen. Meeting them and chatting about the mattresses reminded me very much of many of the Italian craftsmen I knew when I lived in Italy. Unlike pretty much every industry I can think of here in the U.S., each craftsmen is encouraged to take their time to get each detail right. I found that very surprising and refreshing.  The folks I talked to were super enthusiastic and passionate about their work-true artisans.

One of my biggest takeaways from our conversation was about the importance of the materials. High quality, organic materials allow for the creation of the most indulgent mattress.  It makes sense. Just like I want to eat high quality, organic foods and use organic beauty products, I want my family and I sleeping on high quality materials too. After all, we spend almost half of our lives lying on these things. The Stearns and Foster mattresses are made of silk, cashmere, latex cotton and wool. Boom, boom, boom, boom and boom. How can I not look forward to coming to that every night?

After checking out the facility and chatting it up with some of the artisans, I got to help build my own mattress.  The craftsmen (pictured above) did most of the heavy lifting but I got to help stack and stretch the mattress layers into place–and there are more layers on this thing than a gourmet sandwich.

With sleep being such a vital aspect of life, I’m not really sure why I hadn’t invested in a really great mattress –a full, comfy, cozy rest is such an integral part of good, healthy living.

I’ve been sleeping on my Stearns and Foster mattress for almost four months now.  It was a super hot summer, but I don’t wake up in the middle of the night drowning in my own sweat (hello breathability!), and I feel really rested when I wake up in the morning. This is huge. HUGE. (I wake up really early, too!) Finally, each night I look forward to getting back into my own little piece of heaven all over again.

Keep an eye out for me sitting on the finest mattress to grace a bedroom; you might catch more of this story in some of your favorite shelter mags, and to see a video of me building the mattress and to get some tips on how to create a more restful bedroom, click on over to HouseBeautiful.com.

This post was created in partnership with Hearst Magazines and Stearns and Foster. All opinions are my own.
Photography by Danae Horst.